FDA Offers Free, Continuing Education Course to Help Health Care Providers Understand ‘Biosimilars’

Posted on February 18, 2016 by FDA Voice

By: Leah Christl, Ph.D.

You may have heard about a new category of products called “biosimilars.” What are biosimilars and how do they relate to biological products already widely in use?

Biological products derived from living organisms can treat patients with cancer, chronic kidney disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and other serious conditions. Biological products that are “biosimilar” to, or “interchangeable” with, an already-approved FDA biological product (an FDA-licensed reference product) are one way to improve access and increase treatment options at potentially lower cost for our nation’s health care system.

These products are licensed through a new pathway created in the United States in 2009. FDA is well aware that health care professionals–including prescribers, the nurses who will administer them, and the pharmacists who will dispense them–need to understand how these drugs work and how they are intended to be used.

To that end, FDA has developed a free, Continuing Education Course for health care professionals – titled, FDA Overview of Biosimilar Products – to help them strengthen their knowledge and understanding of biosimilars and interchangeable products. Biosimilars and interchangeable products, for instance, are not generic products, and this education course will help health care professionals fully appreciate the distinction.

There’s a growing interest in biosimilars and interchangeable products in the pharmaceutical industry. The first biosimilar in the U.S. was approved in 2015. It boosts the production of white blood cells and helps to ward off infection in patients receiving strong chemotherapy for some tumors. FDA is reviewing several other marketing applications for proposed biosimilar products.

This course also will help health care professionals understand how a biosimilar can be prescribed and dispensed, and how and when an interchangeable product can be substituted for another biological product.

The program will inform healthcare professionals about the development process and approval pathway for biosimilars and interchangeable products. It also includes information about FDA’s general review process for these products that will help attendees gain a better understanding of the relationships between biosimilars and interchangeable products.

The course is available to health professionals on FDA’s CDERLearn Website, and can be completed on a tablet for those on the go and not at their desktop computer.

Leah Christl, Ph.D., is the Associate Director for Therapeutic Biologics in the Office of New Drugs, at the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA